Ordering adjectives in referential communication

We contrasted two hypotheses concerning how speakers determine adjective order during referential communication. The discriminatory efficiency hypotheses claims that speakers place the most discriminating adjective early to facilitate referent identification. By contrast, the availability-based ordering hypothesis assumes that speakers produce most available adjectives early to ease production. Experiment 1 showed that speakers use more pattern-before-color modifier orders (than the reversed) when pattern, not color, distinguished the referent from alternatives, providing support for the discriminatory efficiency hypothesis. Participants also overspecified color more often than pattern, and they generally favored color-before-pattern orders, in support of the availability-based ordering hypothesis. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated both effects in a dialogue setting, where speakers’ adjective ordering was also primed by their partner’s ordering, using conjoined and non-conjoined constructions. We propose a novel model (PASS) that explains how discriminability and availability simultaneously influence adjective selection and ordering via competition in the speaker’s message representation

Down Syndrome and Referential Communication: Understanding and Production

This study aimed to evaluate the ability of referential communication in subjects with Down Syndrome (DS). We evaluated the possibility that the referential communication is the result of a set of cognitive factors, verbal and nonverbal through the evaluation of relationship between cognitive abilities in individuals with DS and typically developing. In particular, we have identified some critical dimensions of communicative function, such as the referential communication, which means the subject's ability to produce o the listener or messages "referentially oriented", ie messages that are characterized by "clarity or ambiguity referential ". The referential communication skills, intended both as production (speaker condition) and as understanding (listener condition). Furthermore, has been decided to deepen their understanding through a test that assesses understanding of the text. This choice stems from the need to investigate whether the understanding of a text for individuals with DS could be easier than the understanding of individual messages. It is assumed in fact, that understanding of a text works as a facilitator in coherent mental representation of the text, compared to a single message

Speaking a L2: Second versus Foreign Language Acquisition

This paper reports on a study carried out on referential communication strategies. It used the theoretical framework of Levelt’s (1989) model of L1 speech production in its application to L2 (DeBot, 1992). The study investigated the underlying processes of utterances of adult speakers who had to solve a referential communication task in L1 and L2. Two groups of participants were formed; the first group acquired the L2 in a second language environment (SLA) and the second group learned the L2 in a foreign language classroom (FLA). Although the distinction between SLA and FLA is significant in any type of L2 acquisition (Ellis, 1994; Rösler, 1995; Edmondson, 1999; Lightbown, 2000), it has not yet been considered in the heoretical framework mentioned. Results show that the process of generating a comprehensible message in referential communication by L2 adult speakers is influenced by the L2 environment

The neural correlates of referential communication : taking advantage of sparse-sampling fMRI to study verbal communication with a real interaction partner

This paper introduces an innovative functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) protocol to study real verbal interactions while limiting the impact of speech-related movement artefacts. This protocol is based on a sparse sampling acquisition technique and allowed participants to complete a referential communication task with a real interaction partner. During verbal interactions, speakers adjust their verbal productions depending on their interlocutors' knowledge of the referents being mentioned. These adjustments have been linked to theory of mind (ToM), the ability to infer other's mental states. We thus sought to determine if the brain regions supporting ToM would also be activated during a referential communication task in which participants have to present movie characters that vary in their likelihood of being known by their interlocutor. This pilot study establishes that the sparse sampling strategy is a viable option to study the neural correlates of referential communication while minimizing movement artefacts. In addition, the brain regions supporting ToM were recruited during the task, though specifically for the conditions where participants could adjust their verbal productions to the interlocutor's likely knowledge of the referent. This study therefore demonstrates the feasibility and relevance of a sparse-sampling approach to study verbal interactions with fMRI, including referential communication

Adults are more efficient in creating and transmitting novel signalling systems than children

Iterated language learning experiments have shown that meaningful and structured signalling systems emerge when there is pressure for signals to be both learnable and expressive. Yet such experiments have mainly been conducted with adults using language-like signals. Here we explore whether structured signalling systems can also emerge when signalling domains are unfamiliar and when the learners are children with their well-attested cognitive and pragmatic limitations. In Experiment 1, we compared iterated learning of binary auditory sequences denoting small sets of meanings in chains of adults and 5-7-year old children. Signalling systems became more learnable even though iconicity and structure did not emerge despite applying a homonymy filter designed to keep the systems expressive. When the same types of signals were used in referential communication by adult and child dyads in Experiment 2, only the adults, but not the children, were able to negotiate shared iconic and structured signals. Referential communication using their native language by 4-5-year old children in Experiment 3 showed that only interaction with adults, but not with peers resulted in informative expressions. These findings suggest that emergence and transmission of communication systems is unlikely to be driven by children, and point to the importance of cognitive maturity and pragmatic expertise of learners as well as feedback-based scaffolding of communicative effectiveness by experts during language evolution

Reference through Mental Files : Indexicals and Definite Descriptions

Accounts for referential communication (and especially communication by means of definite descriptions and indexicals) in the mental file framework